ARLINGTON — From the interstate, framed between the swoopy exuberance of Six Flags and the otherworldly slickness of AT&T Stadium, the Texas Rangers’ ballpark embodies stability and permanence, all red brick and red granite and solid as the earth.

But just 20 years ago, Globe Life Park in Arlington was brand-new, the end result of a still controversial agreement between the city and its residents and an ownership group that included a future governor and president.

On Monday, the Rangers will open their 2014 season against former Rangers ace Cliff Lee and the Philadelphia Phillies, a sold-out event that has become an annual holiday for thousands of baseball fans.

When the ballpark opened for that inaugural opening day, many in North Texas — mostly in Dallas and Fort Worth — were still scratching their heads, wondering how such a thing could have happened.

Richard Greene, then the mayor of Arlington, sat in the middle of it all. He had read the stories in the Dallas papers, and their counterparts in Fort Worth, about how the Rangers would move from the aging Arlington Stadium to one of the towns that gave the region its name, the big towns that considered themselves the real major league cities.

“There was an abundance of opinion and sports talk and news coverage, mostly with the assumption that Dallas would be the new home of the Texas Rangers,” Greene recalled. “Meanwhile, I was waving the Arlington flag as hard as I could.”

The city already had something of a tradition of reaching for things that seemed beyond its grasp. Under the leadership of Mayor Tom Vandergriff in the 1950s, it had persuaded General Motors to build an automobile plant in an empty corner of town. And developer Angus Wynne Jr. had come up with the idea of buying nearby land and creating the Great Southwest Industrial District.

When that proved slower to develop than anticipated, Wynne looked at the success of Disneyland in California and decided to do something similar — Six Flags Over Texas. Opening in 1961, it was a huge hit across the south-central states, even luring Greene and his bride there on their honeymoon — their first visit to Arlington.

The early years

The Rangers had made Arlington their home after the 1971 season, settling in at Arlington Stadium, a minor league park padded with the largest bleacher section in baseball to boost seating to a major league level.

“But Arlington Stadium was never considered to be in the same category as most of the other ballparks in the country,” Greene said, “and we knew a new ballpark would be required.

“Eddie Chiles [the Rangers’ owner at the time] and I had already commenced discussions for a new ballpark, because he told me he couldn’t sustain the team financially in the old ballpark.”

When Chiles sold the team in 1989 to a group that included George W. Bush, the need for a new stadium became a key issue for the city, Greene said.

But he had reasons to be confident.

“From the very beginning of the conversation about the future of the team in Arlington, the future president told me on more than one occasion that Arlington would have the first opportunity to work out a deal for the new ballpark, and he promised they wouldn’t get involved in serious discussions with any other city,” Greene said.

“He was true to his word.”

The new owners also appointed Tom Schieffer, who had grown up in Fort Worth and knew the area as well as anyone in the ownership group, to work out an agreement.

“That was a stroke of good fortune for us,” Greene said, “because Tom was the perfect choice. He knew Arlington, and he recognized the value of its location and the ability to attract people from every part of the area to come and see baseball games.

“And he had a very high awareness that this needed to be a win-win-win deal so everyone would feel they’d been treated fairly — the team had to feel that way, and the city, and most importantly the people of Arlington had to feel it was fair, reasonable and something they could support, which they did overwhelmingly.”

A taxing debate

Not that everyone in town supported the idea of a taxpayer-financed baseball park.

Jim Runzheimer, a local lawyer, was part of a group that strongly opposed the plan, and his feelings haven’t changed in the last 20 years.

“There’s absolutely no reason for the government to provide financing to the private sector for an entertainment facility,” Runzheimer said. “Government has no business being engaged in those types of activities.”

Furthermore, he said, such agreements are “highly discriminatory.”

“The taxes levied to pay off these projects are paid by everyone, but only a very limited elite private enterprise gets the benefits,” Runzheimer said. “There’s no reason for that kind of discrimination.”

Dr. Mark Rosentraub, then at the University of Texas at Arlington and now professor of sports management at the University of Michigan, said many of the issues raised when the ballpark was built no longer apply. But he still thinks Arlington missed some opportunities.

“The ballpark is a great one, and the sales tax made it possible to pay it off at a quicker pace,” he said, “but the failure at the time to do the related real estate to the north never allowed Arlington to achieve what could have been achieved.

“I think the success of the project depends on what you want from the ballpark and what you want from the city,” he said. “Is it a fan-friendly facility? Yes, it’s great.

“But then you go to the question of how it helped the city, and my sense is it really hasn’t had any effect on real estate patterns, it really hasn’t changed the north side of Arlington.”

The financial bottom line for the taxpayers is tougher to determine. But that might not be a big issue for most people in Arlington, he said.

“If the city says, ‘We didn’t get a lot of cash, but we got a lot of recognition,’ that could have value to people,” Rosentraub said. “People are actually willing to spend money to feel better, and if Arlington feels better, that shouldn’t be discounted.”

‘Ballpark is my home’

And after 20 years, some people can’t imagine Arlington without the ballpark.

Lydia Regalado’s dad took her to see the new stadium even before it opened. She was 3 and still has the photo to prove it.

“I can’t say I have a memory of that first trip,” she said. “But I do have memories of running the bases there. I was probably about 5 years old then.

“The ballpark is my home. It’s been a part of my life forever, and I want it to be a part of my life forever.”

She is such a fan that when it came time to get a job, she found it at the ballpark and worked there for four years.

Greene, a season-ticket holder and the eponym of Greene’s Hill, the patch of grass behind the center-field fence that helps batters more easily see the pitched ball, said he still loves meeting someone visiting Globe Life Park for the first time.

When Greene looks back over 20 years and the 23 months of construction that preceded that first opening day, he recalls all the small milestones, each celebrated with a news conference, and then the day the work was done.

“That was a citywide, extraordinary celebration that reflected the pride of the city in what had been achieved,” Greene said.

And it remains fresh in the minds of many in town.

“Now we’re talking about the 20th anniversary,” Greene said, “and a lot of people have a hard time realizing it’s been that long.

“That’s because a lot of them still refer to it as ‘the new ballpark.’”

Follow Michael E. Young on Twitter at @mikeyoungDMN.

GO & DO Rangers’ opening day

When: Game starts at 1:05 p.m. Monday. Gates open at 10 a.m.; parking lots open at 8 a.m.

Where: Globe Life Park in Arlington

Ceremonial first pitch: Will be thrown out by first-ballot Hall of Famer and native Texan Greg Maddux. The 355-game winner’s catcher will be his brother, Mike, the Rangers’ pitching coach. Greg Maddux is in his third year with the Rangers as special assistant to the general manager.

Patriotism: On April 1, 1994, at the first regular-season game at the ballpark, pianist Van Cliburn and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra performed the national anthem. The orchestra will be back on the field Monday to perform the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

After the national anthem, vintage warplanes from Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison will fly over the stadium, and country recording artist Neil McCoy will sing “God Bless America.”

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